Tailoring the Campus Experience with Personas

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Thanks to updated methods of data collection and analytics, the landscape of higher education is shifting. With more and more tools becoming accessible, campuses across the country are adapting to meet the expectations of Gen-Z students. In a previous blog post, we discussed the importance of personalizing the student experience, but we must remember that not everyone on campus is a student.

While it is important for students to feel as though they are being supported on an individual level, we must not forget about other campus residents. With 'Personas' becoming available on mobile campus platforms, prospective students, alumni, faculty, and staff can all have a campus experience tailored specifically to them.

‍Keeping Student Information Secure‍

One concern that can arise when deciding to open the app up to multiple users is keeping student information confidential. By having separate logins which direct to persona-specific landing pages, student data will be limited only to those with specified access.

By controlling access to which persona sees which content, such as only allowing current students and faculty to view and post to your Campus Wall, your campus’ social network will remain secure. Through selective persona capabilities, outside users can get a sense of what campus-life is like, without disrupting your campus eco-system.

Leveraging Personas
In order for you campus app to produce the largest return on investment, it must be made available to the largest possible audience. By allowing prospective students to explore the campus-app, they can get a better sense of what attending campus would be like, even influencing their decision to apply. However, certain functionalities such as the ability to post on the campus wall, or the ability to schedule a meeting with an academic advisor should be revoked to eliminate unauthorized access to the app.

On the other end of the spectrum, once a student has graduated, he or she might want to keep up with homecoming events, but won’t need the course-tracking functionality anymore. This is why having an alumni persona is crucial when wanting to keep previous students engaged with the campus, even once they’ve left, to ensure that your campus ecosystem will continue to grow.

Put simply, a platform that enables you to give different permissions dependent on the persona will allow for a more personalized platform experience.